“…these events go dramatically underreported,” says Van Der Haegen. “Between 25 and 42 percent are reported to police. And so while we haven’t seen a dramatic increase, we are doing our best to educate the community and let them know that we are here for them.”

Van Der Haegen says people can report hateful acts to her office, or to Eugene Police if the incident is criminal in nature.

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The rate of reported hate crimes for the city of Eugene seems to be holding steady since tracking began four years ago. KLCC’s Brian Bull attended the release of the “2015 Hate and Bias Report” at the historic Mims house today and has this story.

Eugene police are investigating swastikas that were tagged near a Jewish fraternity.

Bryan Kalbrosky is a student and member of the University of Oregon’s Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. On his way to class on Monday, he noticed a dozen swastikas drawn on a cluster mailbox near the fraternity house.

Kalbrosky: “In the Eugene community, this is a rare thing to see. I’ve never seen swastikas in Eugene before and I know that it’s definitely a fairly progressive place when it comes to that type of thinking. So that’s what really caught me off guard.”

This month, the City of Eugene’s Human Rights Office, in conjunction with the Eugene Police Department, released a report documenting bias-based incidents and criminal activity in our Community. It found there were 55 incidents reported in 2013 – ranging from acts of physical violence to vandalism targeting people based on race, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, and religion.